``I actually sat down and cried because my husband wasn't here to share it with me -- the joy,'' said Dowjat, 59, who lost her husband to melanoma in 1997. ``It was something he always said, `Ellie, one of these days you're going to have to win big. ... I don't think it's really sunk in.''

As always, Dowjat had played the numbers 2, 5, 9, 11, 14, each representing a date of significance for Dowjat and her family, at the Stafford News and Variety on Stafford Avenue. On Tuesday, when she went to play again, she discovered her win.

Wednesday, Dowjat picked up her check from Connecticut Lottery for $67,500, the prize value after taxes. According to a news release issued by the agency, of the 5,383 winning tickets sold for the Monday drawing, Dowjat's was the only one with a $100,000 prize value.

The winnings will enable Dowjat to maintain her home, where she said she cares for a 20-year-old woman who is mentally disabled and has cerebral palsy. The only project she has planned for her winnings is to improve her home with siding. The rest she will invest.

She has no plans to stop playing Cash 5. Why should she? Dowjat played Wednesday night and said she won again -- $10.

``I win a lot,'' she said.

BRISTOL

Commission Backs

City's Master Plan

BRISTOL -- The planning commission unanimously approved the city's master plan Wednesday night, finalizing a project that has taken city officials more than two years to research and complete.

Officially titled the ``Plan of Conservation and Development,'' it will guide growth and development in the city. The plan looks at a variety of issues, including demographics, existing land use and zoning, housing, public facilities and services, transportation, economic development and parks, open space and environment. It updates the plan of 1989 and contains unique features such as an in-depth look at downtown Bristol.

``I think this [plan] is somewhat more comprehensive,'' City Planner Alan L. Weiner said. ``This plan takes a somewhat more holistic view of the city in both conservation and development.''

A draft of the plan was discussed at a public hearing in September. Since then the planning commission incorporated some minor changes based on comments made at that hearing. Those ideas included creating a transportation center downtown, promoting first-time homeownership and encouraging a citywide information infrastructure that would stimulate economic and community development, Weiner said.

The document should be available to the public sometime in January.

As city officials complete one project they are already looking ahead to the next. At the beginning of next year, the zoning commission plans to review its regulations for the first time in a decade. Weiner said he doesn't expect that review will take as long as the master plan process.

NEW BRITAIN -- A former city resident faces felony gun charges for illegally selling six handguns in 1999 to help get out of personal debt, court records state.

Edwin Nieves, 36, of Killingworth Road, Hamden, was charged by warrant with the illegal sale of six handguns and with failure to update the address on his state pistol permit.

State troopers on a firearms task force claim Nieves sold six guns from his own legal collection to various people in 1999, but broke the law by failing to fill out paperwork documenting each sale.

It's not clear if any of those six guns were subsequently used to commit crimes.

Court records also state that Nieves committed a crime by not telling state police his new address within two days of moving last year from New Britain.

Nieves is free on a writen promise to return to New Britain Superior Court on Dec. 21.

NEW BRITAIN

Man Sought Since '94

Is Now In Custody

NEW BRITAIN -- A man sought since 1994 in a jewelry store break-in was in New Britain Superior Court Thursday after a chance arrest in Hartford led to police finding out the man was also wanted in New Britain.

Luis Alfredo Resto, 26, now of Springfield, Mass., was charged with failure to appear on old drug charges and was served a 6-year-old warrant alleging he broke into a Main Street jewelry store through its roof and stole 60 bracelet charms.

Police in 1994 quickly suspected Resto in the burglary, but he'd left the city before the warrant could be served.

Both of Resto's 1994 cases remained on file in the police station over the years.

When Hartford police arrested Resto on unspecified charges Oct. 24, police there learned that Resto was also wanted in New Britain.

Resto was held in lieu of $5,500 bail Thursday.

He is due back in court Jan. 4 in the drug and sixth-degree larceny cases.